272 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Oswego, a village situated on the east side, near the estuary of the 

 river, from which it takes its name, contains about thirty houses. It 

 is a port of entry, and in 1809, above half a million of merchandize 

 was shipped here. On the opposite shore of the river, stands Oswego 

 fort, which, though possessing a commanding position, is in a state 

 of decay and ruin. 



Sackets Harbour, situated on the south side of Black river bay, at 

 the east end of Ontario, and sixteen miles from the river St. Law- 

 rence, is a port of entry, contains upwards of 500 inhabitants, and is 

 rapidly increasing. The harbour is the best on lake Ontario. On 

 the west side is a peninsula of rock which affords secure shelter 

 from the north-west. The banks fronting the harbour, from the land 

 side, are about thirty feet high. Near Sackets Harbour are numerous 

 bays, the chief of which is Charmont Bay, about fifteen miles in cir- 

 cuit. It is the best fishing place on Ontario, and many hundred 

 barrels of fish, caught here, are put up annually. 



The only river of any note falling into Ontario from the north, is 

 the Trent, which empties into Quinti bay. This bay is a long nar- 

 row harbour, formed by a large peninsula, extending eastward from 

 the shore of the lake. 



Rivers. ...Whether considered with respect to the quantity of wa- 

 ter it pours into the ocean, or the extent of territory it pervades, the 

 Mississippi is second to no river on the globe, except the Amazon, 

 of South America. Its fountain head is amongst a cluster of small 

 lakes in latitude 47° 38' N. and its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico, in 

 lat. 29° N. Its confluent streams, embrace about 45 degrees of longi- 

 tude, pervading all that vast plain, bounded westwardly by the Snow 

 and Rocky mountains, bordering on the Pacific Ocean, and eastward- 

 ly by the western ranges of the Alleganies. Through all this re- 

 gion, which, on account of the salubrity of its climate, and the fertility 

 of its soil, promises to become, at no distant period, the hive of Ameri- 

 can population, and the inexhaustible granary of the surrounding 

 world, this noble river, and its tributaries, offer a thousand channels, 

 in all directions, for inland navigation, and civil intercourse. So pro- 

 foundly were the imaginations of the aborigines impressed with the 

 vast extent of its ramifications, the immense fountains which supply 

 its ever rolling tide, and the increasing majesty with which it ad- 

 vances towards the ocean, that they conferred on this river the distin- 

 guished appellation of Mechassifii ; a term, compounded of two Indian 

 words, Meacht Chassifii, signifying the ancient father of waters. 



The general bearing of the Mississippi is about eighteen degrees 

 east of south. Its principal branch issues from Upper Cedar lake, 

 on whose north-east margin, the Canadians have a trading house 

 and fort. Thence it pursues a circuitous route to lake Winepec; 

 thence south twenty-four miles, where it receives a rival stream, 

 issuing from Leech lake, in the neighbourhood of Upper Cedar Lake ; 

 thence north of east six miles ; thence to lake de Sable its bearing 

 is nearly south. In this last distance there are two considerable rapids. 

 That of Pakagama is the largest. The descent is down a flat rock, 

 whose declination makes an angle of 30° with the horizon. The fall 

 is twenty feet, and the portage on the east side 200 yards. The face 

 of the country, so far, wears the appearance of a boundless morass, 

 interspered with lakes and savannas. The surface of the soil is scarce- 

 ly elevated above that of the level of the lakes and rivers. The winter 

 here is long, and intensely cold, the rivers and lakes being frozen 



